Santa Ana winds rip through many inland communities, mountains

By Reginald Stanley. Posted October 5, 2013, 2:58 PM.

Santa Ana winds began blowing through the inland valleys and mountains early Friday morning, continuing into the weekend. Not all areas were effected; wind-prone locations suffered the worst, as they typically do during these events.

In the WeatherCurrents network, Simi Valley recorded the highest wind gust of 62 mph Friday morning. Max wind gusts for each station varied from early Friday morning to Saturday morning. Both of WeatherCurrents' stations in Riverside took a beating from the winds, with peak gusts of 43 mph in Presidential Park and 36 mph in Riverside's Canyon Crest neighborhood. Jurupa Valley had a peak gust of 38 mph, San Bernardino recorded a gust of 31 mph, and a max gust of 29 mph was recorded in Beaumont (Cherry Valley).

The valleys of southwestern Riverside County were mostly missed by the Santa Ana winds, with communities such as Lake Elsinore, Murrieta, Menifee, and French Valley recording peak wind gusts of no more than between 21 and 26 mph. Wildomar's peak gust was only 18 mph. Sustained winds at those locations were much lower. To the south, however, Temecula recorded a peak wind gust of 36 mph, being in a more wind-prone location than the rest of the Temecula Valley. Hemet recorded a peak wind gust of only 16 mph, and Moreno Valley only 20 mph. Nearby Perris was windier with a peak gust of 32 mph. To the east, Anza recorded a peak gust of 40 mph.

Communities closer to the coast were largely unaffected by the winds, which isn't unusual for those areas. De Luz and Fallbrook recorded peak gusts of 21 and 19 mph, respectively. Winds at San Diego's City Heights neighborhood never got any higher than 10 mph.

Wind gusts in the mountains were much higher. National Weather Service stations in the San Diego County mountains recorded peak wind gusts between 40 and 70 mph - Sill Hill (near Descanso) recording the 70 mph wind gust Saturday morning. In Orange County, the notoriously windy Fremont Canyon recorded a peak wind gust of 66 mph early Friday morning.

The very dry Santa Ana Winds prompted Red Flag Warnings and High Wind Watches for much of the region, with single-digit humidities, warm temperatures and dry vegetation creating very high fire danger. Winds will diminish within the next 48 hours, with warmer temperatures tomorrow becoming cooler on Monday.

Low pressure will bring increasing onshore flow beginning late Monday, leading to significantly cooler temperatures Tuesday. A Pacific storm is set to move down California during the middle of the week, possibly bringing a chance of showers to the region Wednesday and Thursday.